Marcel Duchamp, Fountain: An Homage

Catalogue for the exhibition "Marcel Duchamp Fountain: An Homage" opened at Francis M. Naumann Fine Art on Monday, April 10, 2017, marking the 100th anniversary (to the day) of the opening of the First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York City. In accordance with the rules of the organization-which was to have no prizes and no jury-all works that were submitted to the exhibition would be displayed, but a glistening white porcelain urinal submitted by a man identified only as Richard Mutt was unceremoniously excluded from the show, the hanging committee having objected to its status as a work of art. Eventually it would be disclosed that R. Mutt was a pseudonym concocted by Marcel Duchamp, whose submission of this work resulted in changing the very definition of art, an explosive disruption in the philosophy of aesthetics that continues to reverberate within the contemporary art world to this day.